AICC Surveys Members on Health Care Coverage to Gear Up for Potential AHP

AICC, The Independent Packaging Association, is surveying its 230 boxmaking members and 180 supplier members in the US about their employee health care coverage in anticipation of approval of new rules governing Association Health Plants, or AHPs. AICC President Steve Young said in his May 14 letter to AICC members that the Trump Administration last fall had proposed new rules that would allow AHPs to be formed more easily.

“Last October, the President issued an Executive Order modifying the ERISA rules to make it easier to form multiple employer health plans,” Young wrote. “These ‘Association Health Plans,’ or AHPs, give small employers the ability to band together to offer benefits in the large group market segment; offer more flexibility in plan design and potentially lower premiums.”

AICC Chairman Al Hoodwin has made pursuit of a possible AHP a central part of his “Strength in Numbers” theme in his Chairmanship of the Association this year, citing AHPs in his remarks at the Association’s 2018 Spring Meeting last month in Phoenix. “We have an opportunity as an Association to look at our employee benefits through Association Health Plans, a critical development which we are following and planning for carefully.”

The Department of Labor issued a preliminary rule on January 5, 2018, and this was followed by a mandatory 60-day comment period which ended on March 5. The DOL is expected to issue a preliminary final rule in June, with a finalized rule expected in September.

AICC said that it is surveying members in an effort to be prepared if these revisions become effective. For more information, or to participate in the survey, contact Steve Young at 703-535-1381, or syoung@aiccbox.org.